[I decided to add this category to my roster just for kicks, and to see if I could tie any words I may come across into anything Metal Gear. Because, of course!]
Vetting is the process of performing a background check on someone before offering them employment, conferring an award, etc. A prospective person or project may be vetted before making a hiring decision. In addition, in intelligence gathering, assets are vetted to determine their usefulness.
Sentence usage:Solid Snake was vetted before being assigned by Colonel Campbell the task to take down Metal Gear.
[The Last Days of FOXHOUND is a fan made comic that I stumbled upon a few years ago while perusing the Internetz as an MGS fan. This strip, created by a fellow MGS fan named Chris Douchette, ran this comic from 2003-2008. I was lucky enough to run into all 500 completed pages and wanted to share them with all of you readers. I’ll try to reiterate each and every consecutive page as time goes on. Most of the humor stems from the going on throughout the MGS series, so those who aren’t too familiar may find themselves slightly lost. My solution: play the MGS games. You guys wouldn’t be here anyways if you haven’t at least played MGS1. Anywho, enjoy!]
Hey all! I know I haven’t posted much. Busy with wedding planning and all, and sort of getting stuck playing InFamous: Second Son.
I still have to get my review of the HTC One M8, as well as Titanfall, as well as InFamous. I have yet to actually start the work on these, well, I do have the source material for my Titanfall HAR (Half Assed Review), but I just haven’t been able to put it together.
Anyhow, this is not what this post is about. About a week ago, Nekked and I did a session on MGS: Peace Walker, and we recorded the whole thing. Now, it is close to 50 minutes long, and for some reason my audio is very low. Granted this is the first time we did this, so please bear with us for now. This is really a test run for some stuff we have planned out.
Hope y’all enjoy it, somewhat. And if you did, please subscribe to our channel, and like our video…and while we are doing plugs, like our new FB page too! https://www.facebook.com/JWABlog
Kojima has posted more pictures and details of the MGSV:GZ iDroid iPhone case. In one of the pics it looks like the case has a modular design and can be taken apart piece by piece to be reassembled around the phone. Japan will release this bad boy this October for 7500 yen/53 euro/73 usd.
There’s a camera cover to hide the iPhone lense. Also, the blue light can be moved around a bit.
I really like this case, but jeez, the price tag for it leaves something to be desired. For those of you who want this though, it looks like you will have to import the item because there are no details as of yet for release outside the land of the rising sun.
I know I posted it a couple articles ago, but I just got around to watching episode 3 of Kojima Station. I’ve only gotten through the first 20 minutes but there are some interesting things to take note of. Case in point the crew talks about the DEJA VU mission (PlayStation exclusive) which actually has some records that players can set. Among these records is finding various MGS logos from past games. The goal is to, as Sean Eyestone puts it, erase these logos with a similar technique that’s used by Skull Face in the Ground Zeroes trailer. What got my attention is that, in this demonstration, one of the logos is that of Portable Ops.
I suppose Kojima was thinking of us MPO fans when he wanted to come up with some challenges. Nonetheless, it’s a cool surprise. Some logos apparently won’t be as easy to find as they can be hidden behind, or possibly under objects. So look carefully. You also may need to use your weapons to move certain objects out of the way.
Check out the episode below of you haven’t already. You can watch from the beginning or fast forward to the 11:30 mark.
Holy smokes, the iDroid is real! OK, well it’s real in the sense that Hideo Kojima actually had a case designed to it’s exact likeness from MGSV: Ground Zeroes.
Kojima partnered up with toy company Sentinel Co Ltd in Japan to come up with this case, which as of now is made only for the iPhone. The case seems to surround the whole iPhone, which is powered by the phone itself.
The holographic light turns on, though sadly it’s not a real functioning holograph. Gimmicky, yes, but still pretty awesome. Apparently according to Hideo there will be more details tomorrow so I’ll keep you guys posted. Imagine cosplaying as Snake/Big Boss with this in your hand with the Ground Zeroes Companion App activated!
I got a Solid (pun always intended) chunk of time to play with the Playstation 4 this weekend. A good friend of mine who owns it also acquired MGSV: Ground Zeroes the same time I did. I finally really got a chance to dip into the missions through the eyes of the stellar console. And may I say, GOODNESS GRACIOUS! I’m already impressed by it’s visuals on my PS3, but to experience this game on next-gen muscle really is something else. If there are still those of you ladies and gents who haven’t yet played GZ, you’re doing yourselves a disservice. Merely watching gameplay videos aren’t enough by far. You’ll really need to PLAY to know what I mean.
As this video above illustrates, there is a distinct difference in the visual integrity of the game across all platforms. In my case I’ve played on both the Playstation variants. The game on my Slim is already a stunner but switching to the PS4 was just jaw dropping. The buttery smooth 60FPS frame rate made Snake feel that much more alive. The sharpness of everything was literally making my eyes tear up because I couldn’t stop drooling over everything.
As expected, Snake and company all looked and moved great. If there were any glaring things that stood out to be mentioned it would be the control scheme. Let me clear that up. The control scheme setup is exactly the same across both PS consoles except for the L1, L2, R1, and R2 triggers. Apparently, Kojima felt it necessary literally flip these buttons between consoles. No clue why. I got used to:
The PS4 version had:
L1 – RADIO
L2 – AIM
R1 – BINOS
R2 – SHOOT/ATTACK
These are default and also seem to be unmappable. I had to take more than a few moments to reacquaint myself with the controls, which hampered my gameplay. When I wanted to aim, Kaz would call me instead. When I’d want to perform a CQC takedown I’d zoom in on the guard instead. I suppose Kojima did this to take advantage of the new DS4 (Dualshock 4) controller and its new trigger buttons. Once I got the hang of it I started to appreciate the triggers a little more, but not before frustration set in. At times I’d get caught because I was taking too long to fudge the controls. Or, during one missions to take out a target, when I had a clear shot, I’d shoot with my BINOS instead of my damn gun, losing a perfect opportunity for a nice headshot. The same instances happened during another gameplay where I had to rescue Chico. I got busted in the prison camp so instead of “restarting from checkpoint” I decided to shoot Chico right between the eyes. If you guys thought that the Paz chopper sequence was disturbing, try what I did on purpose. Chico lets out this death scream that punctuates the look on his dead face. It was actually satisfying, more so because it wasn’t my game save I was playing off of. Tee hee.
To comment briefly on the hardware itself, while the PS4 is one powerful beast, I totally forgot that the MEDIA options weren’t there yet. I was trying to syphon through an external hard drive that I plugged in to watch some content only to be met with a few moments of confusion and the realization that, duh, there was no way to do so. Something that my PS3 had available at its first inception. But that’s for yet another article, which I may have already written about. It doesn’t matter yet since I won’t have a chance to even purchase one. Gives me time to wait for an eventual patch to add media power.
Back on topic, Ground Zeroes on the PS4 is pure excellence dipped in awesomeness. I actually enjoyed watching my buddies take turns playing as well. While I consider myself Intermediate at any MGS game, I am not by any means a professional. I still get busted and may have to kill a few enemies, which sucks for me as I always try to Stealth all missions. And GZ is a whole different animal. Getting spotted is easier and more frustrating. But that’s the challenge. My buddy who owns the PS4 is the same person who got me into the MGS franchise in the first place. So far out of all of us he’s the only one I know who scored a B RANK in one side op. My personal best is C RANK. I’ll have to try to change that soon.
[The Last Days of FOXHOUND is a fan made comic that I stumbled upon a few years ago while perusing the Internetz as an MGS fan. This strip, created by a fellow MGS fan named Chris Douchette, ran this comic from 2003-2008. I was lucky enough to run into all 500 completed pages and wanted to share them with all of you readers. I’ll try to reiterate each and every consecutive page as time goes on. Most of the humor stems from the going on throughout the MGS series, so those who aren’t too familiar may find themselves slightly lost. My solution: play the MGS games. You guys wouldn’t be here anyways if you haven’t at least played MGS1. Anywho, enjoy!]
I just wrote a blog 